Kanishk Tharoor

Kanishk Tharoor is a writer based in New York City and the author of Swimmer Among the Stars: Stories, a forthcoming collection of short fiction. His stories and essays have appeared in publications in India, the US, the UK, and the Middle East. He has been nominated for the National Magazine Award. Follow him on twitter @kanishktharoor

Once the world’s biggest city, the Silk Road metropolis of Merv in modern Turkmenistan destroyed by Genghis Khan’s son and the Mongols in AD1221 with an estimated 700,000 deaths. It never fully recovered

Floating on a £18bn island, two new museums will make the UAE a global capital of culture. But are they part of a cynical campaign to put art in the service of the state or a sign of a more enlightened future?